Beverly Hills Polo Club case: Delhi HC stays order directing Amazon to pay Rs 340 cr for infringing trademark

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed an order directing Amazon Technologies Inc to pay around Rs 340 crore as damages and costs for trademark infringement of the luxury lifestyle brand, Beverly Hills Polo Club.

The decision of a bench comprising Justice C Hari Shankar and Justice Ajay Digpaul came on the plea against a single judge's order directing Amazon Technologies to pay Lifestyle Equities damages of 39 million dollars after finding that Amazon infringed upon its "Beverly Hills Polo Club" trademark.

Amazon's main appeal against the order has been posted on October 9.

"The considerations outlined herein above make out, in our considered opinion, an exceptional case, in which it would be a complete travesty of justice to require the appellant Amazon Tech to deposit, or secure, any part of the amount decreed by the impugned judgment, in order to maintain its appeal," the bench said on Tuesday.

The court held there was no specific finding by the single judge and that it was largely generalised in nature, concentrating on the phenomenon of e-infringement and reflect a view that, if Amazon Tech desired, it could infringe, rather than that it did infringe.

It did not find any prima facie sustainable allegation of involvement by Amazon in any infringement of Lifestyle's registered trademark.

"This, therefore, is not merely a case in which damages have been awarded against Amazon Tech without any finding, by the learned Single Judge, of involvement, in the alleged infringing activities, but is, in fact, a case where no such pleadings exist," the court said.

In 2020, Lifestyle Equities filed a trademark infringement suit against Amazon Technologies and others alleging that they infringed upon its registered "BEVERLY HILLS POLO CLUB" logo/device marks by using a deceptively similar mark on apparel and other products sold on their platforms.

It was claimed that Amazon was manufacturing and selling products under the brand "Symbol" with the infringing mark, and that Cloudtail India, operating on the Amazon.in marketplace, was also involved in the sale of these infringing products.